KENYAN PRESIDENT FREES 4 DETAINEES

By JANE PERLEZ, Special to The New York Times

Published: June 4, 1989

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 3—
In a surprise move, the Government of Kenya has released four of seven political detainees whose cases have drawn widespread international criticism from human rights groups and lawyers' organizations.

The move also follows criticism of Kenya's human rights record by United States officials, including a Congressman influential in deciding the amount of aid to Kenya. The legislator, Representative David R. Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, is chairman of the subcommittee on foreign operations and has advocated linking aid to Kenya to improvements in human rights.

President Daniel arap Moi announced the releases on Thursday, Madaraka Day, the annual celebration of Kenya's assumption of self-government from the British in 1963.

Several human rights organizations welcomed the release of the four detainees but expressed disappointment that three others remained in prison. Appeal for Ailing Detainee

''We urge the release of the others,'' said Rakiya Omaar, the executive director of Africa Watch, a human rights group based in London. She singled out the case of Mirugi Kariuki, a 37-year-old lawyer arrested without charge in 1986 who is believed to be in urgent need of medical treatment as a result of torture and ill treatment. Mr. Kariuki had sued the Government for torture and illegal detention, she said.

Two of those freed - Wanyiri Kihoro, a lawyer, and Mukaru Nganga, a former history professor - also sued the Government for torture and illegal detention. Their lawyer, Gibson Kamau Kuria, himself detained and then released by the Government, was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Human Rights this year, in part for his work on behalf of the two prisoners, who were held three years.

In an affadavit, Mr. Nganga described being forced to live alone for two months in a dark cell partly filled with water.

Raila Odinga, a member of a prominent political family that is critical of the Moi Government, was also released Thursday. He was first arrested in 1982 for alleged involvement in an attempted coup. The fourth freed detainee was Samuel Okumu Okwany, held since September.